Cannabis Research Institute opens in Chicago, looking to dig deep into marijuana

Nearly a year and a half after it was announced, the Cannabis Research Institute is getting operations underway in Chicago, with the goal of studying, among other things, how marijuana could help or harm people.

The institute’s leader hopes to break new ground in finding medical uses for cannabis, possibly for the treatment of cancer. Researchers also can help with the creation of a new state reference lab to check for accuracy in the testing of commercial pot. And they could track down a virus that threatens to ruin crops.

The research group is making use of a new lab in a former COVID-19 testing facility in the Illinois Medical Center campus on the West Side, harnessing DNA sequencing equipment formerly used to test for COVID-19.

But at least for now, the institute’s lab will not be in its planned new office. The headquarters for its parent organization, the University of Illinois System’s Discovery Partners Institute, is proposed for vacant land on The 78, the 62-acre South Loop site where the Chicago White Sox also want to build a new stadium.

Construction on the headquarters was expected this year and should start soon, officials said, but likely may not be completed until 2027. Meanwhile, state leaders have been unwilling to give the Sox money for the stadium—despite the developer of The 78, Related Midwest, installing a new sodded baseball field on the site to spur interest in the White Sox plan.

For now the director of the Cannabis Research Institute, Reggie Gaudino, is proceeding elsewhere. He’s using a three-year, $7 million grant from the Illinois Department of Human Services to get started and applying for research grants from other governmental and nonprofit organizations.

“It is quite possible there will be some types of cannabis that can address any number of maladies,” Gaudino said. “However, there are also potential harms to cannabis. The Cancer Research Institute is doing the research to answer some of these questions and move the conversation forward with a sound scientific basis.”

Before coming to Chicago, Gaudino used his Ph.D. in molecular genetics and biochemistry as a patent scientist. He was president of Steep Hill Inc. cannabis testing and chief science officer at hemp company Front Range Biosciences in Boulder, Colorado.

He worked with early companies such as Charlotte’s Web, producing products high in CBD, a non-psychoactive compound to treat various conditions.

One child that Steep Hill worked with had an aggressive form of cancer in her head. Researchers found a hemp extract that Gaudino said helped that child and several others, who became cancer free.

Now, Gaudino hopes to partner with Northern Illinois University on further research into cannabis to inhibit cancer growth.

He also plans to hunt for hop latent viroid, a longtime scourge of hop plants used in making beer that’s recently running rampant in cannabis.

And he will advise on establishing a state reference lab that will check the accuracy of private labs. Studies have found discrepancies between lab reports and actual levels of potency and contaminants, including mold, in legal weed.

The Cannabis Research Institute was formed in 2022 with the state, the Cannabis Regulation Oversight Officer, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and the city of Chicago.

The institute will not take money from cannabis companies, but is seeking funding through grants from the state or federal government, and groups such as the National Institutes of Health.

Gaudino hopes to partner with other research groups to reach a prominent status in cannabis research, along the lines of centers in California, Colorado and Israel.

He hopes to get a waiver from the DEA to use cannabis produced within the state for research, rather than having to use a DEA-approved facility elsewhere. The proposed rescheduling of marijuana to a less-restrictive status should make research much faster and easier.

Cannabis researcher Dr. Sue Sisley congratulated Illinois on making a significant investment in the field, but warned that funding is just the first step.

It can take years, she said, to get approvals at the “glacial” speed of FDA and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to obtain cannabis for research and do clinical trials on humans, said Sisley, founder and principal investigator of the Scottsdale Research Institute.

Michigan approved $40 million for cannabis research in 2021, but three years later, federal obstacles have blocked many of those studies.

While lab research is a start, she said, human research is essential. And it’s important that funding goes to research rather than university overhead.

“It’s important to do real world study in humans to advance questions people have about how to use cannabis,” she said.

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